Biological anthropology

About: Biological anthropology is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1126 publications have been published within this topic receiving 12757 citations. The topic is also known as: biological anthropology & somatology.

Recent trends in american ethnology

Abstract: AMERICAN anthropology as an organized science is only one hundred years old. The American Ethnological Society of New York, founded in 1842, was the first organization of its kind on the continent. In 1851 "the first scientific account of an Indian tribe" appeared-Lewis H. Morgan's League of the Iroquois. In 1866 the Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology was founded in Cambridge. In 1879 the Bureau of American Ethnology was organized as the first agency to be supported by a national government for the systematic study of the aboriginal groups under its jurisdiction. In the same year the Anthropological Society of Washington was founded. The first number of the American Anthropologist appeared in 1888 and the Journal of American Folklore began the following year. These early milestones were conceived and set up by men who, for the most part, had begun in other fields such as geology (McGee), medicine (Matthews) or law (Morgan). Some, like Matthews, subsisted from their original profession ancLpractised anthropology as an avocation. Others, like Powell and Putnam, became affiliated with the Bureau of American Ethnology or with a museum. The universities were slow in adding anthropology to their course of study. The first Ph.D. (1892) was awarded to Chamberlain by Clark University only a little over fifty years ago and exactly fifty years after the founding of the first American society for anthropology. In this first half century the foundations were laid and the pioneer work in American archeology, linguistics, physical anthropology and ethnography was done. This did not stop at simple description. These men were interested in interpreting what they saw, although the facts they possessed were few compared with the number available today.' The outstanding efforts in this direction were made by Morgan. In Systems of consanguinity and affinity (1870) he attempted to classify kinship systems and relate them to each other. Ancient society (1877) is one of the most substantial attempts in Europe or America to contribute to an understanding of the evolution of our social system. In Houses and house-life of the American aborigines (1881) he tried to show the correlation between architectural forms and social organization. This is the true scientific attitude: facts are of value only for the generalizations that can be derived from them and applied to a better understanding of our own life. From 1892 to about 1925 Boas and his students dominated American anthropology. They found much to criticize in the evolutionary approach. When they tried to apply the evolutionist's sequences of development to particular tribes or peoples they discovered that the history of few if any of them con-

War and Inner Peace: Li Qingzhao, Female Poet in Song China: A Biography, Poem, and Gender Analysis

Abstract: The Chinese poet Li Qingzhao (李清照, 1084-1155 lived during the Song Dynasty (宋朝, 960-1279), a period of fierce wars against attacking Jurchen (女真) hordes from the North. This article describes her curriculum and reception by means of authentic and recent material. She came from a leading family of writers and politicians, and married a husband of her class. Initially, she had a happy marriage, although her partner was often for work from home. When they had to flee for the enemy, their large collection of antiquities was lost. Li had made poems since a young age. Approximately 50 so-called ci-poems (词) have been handed down from her. They show us a free woman who easily speaks about her body, sexuality, environment and work. Partly, her thoughts about her world and personal suffering come with great physical and mental pains, however, are also linked to dreams and flowers. In that she knows how to fully utilize common sense of symbolism in an original and feminine idiom. This is probably the reason that she has become an icon in traditional China, with dominating male preferences. She is placed in the socio-cultural framework of the Song Dynasty, and turns out to be child of her time. Chinese poetry, especially Li Qingzhao’s lyric, is still an important field of research.

William Montague Cobb: Near the African diasporic origins of activist and biocultural anthropology.

Abstract: William Montague Cobb, AB, MD, PhD, was the first African American PhD in anatomy and physical anthropology. He produced 1,100 publications while a professor at Howard University. His influence on the civil rights struggle from the 1930s to 1970s was profound as were his contributions to science and medical history. This article shows how he continued the activist and interdisciplinary traditions of African diasporic intellectuals and that these innovated what is today labeled biocultural anthropology, which focuses on the political, economic, and other societal influences on human biology and health. The human biology of the White "mainstream" has tended toward reductionism, biodeterminism, and eugenics. It drew a causal arrow from biology to society. Had they been able to listen to Black intellectuals, the world might have avoided the tragedy of mid-20th century eugenics and its long continuing biodeterministic shadow.